Splash guard for food waste disposer



Dec. 29, 1964. A. L. HARDY 3,153,371

SPLASH GUARD FOR FOOD WASTE DISPOSER Filed Jan. 24, 1963 FIG.4

INVENTOR ALBERT HARDY BY lwlffi;

H \s ATTORNEY F'IG.\

United States Patent 3,163,371 SPLASH GUARD FUR F09 1) WASTE DISPGSER Albert L. Hardy, Lonisviile, Ky., assignor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Filed Jan. 24, 1963, Ser. No. 253,690 4 Claims. (Cl. 241-1005) This invention relates to a food waste disposer and particularly to a design of a splash guard that is mounted in the sink flange adjacent the open throat of the hopper of the disposer.

It has become common practice in continuous feed food waste disposers to use a splash guard in the drain opening or sink flange adjacent the throat of the hopper for the purpose of preventing water and food waste from splashing or being propelled out of the machine during operation. A second important feature of the splash guard is that it retains some water in the sink flange as a water barrier that reduces the amount of air-borne noise that can escape into the room from the grinding mechanism during its operation. Heretofore, the splash guard has been of elastomeric material either of flat configuration or formed as a hemispherical cup with radial slits to form resilient fingers.

The principal object of the present invention is to design a splash guard for a food waste disposer with increased ease for loading food waste down through the splash guard but with increased resistance to the passage of food waste in a reverse direction up through the splash guard as the machine is operated.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a splash guard of the class described where the resilient fingers tend to brace each other when an upward force is exerted on the fingers from below.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a splash guard that will prevent an air lock in the machine by allowing air to pass upwardly through the hopper by way of increasing the ease of deflecting the fingers of the splash guard to allow the water to pour into the hopper rather than building a head of water in the sink.

The present invention, in accordance with one form thereof, relates to a splash guard that is adapted to be located within a sink flange of a drain opening of a kitchen sink adjacent the open throat of the hopper of a food waste disposer. The splash guard is made of elastomeric material and it has a circular upper portion and a deep drawn, inverted generally conical portion at the center extending downwardly to present a generally horn shape that is open upwardly. A plurality of radial slits is formed in the splash guard from the central portion to adjacent the periphery of the upper portion to form resilient fingers which increase the ease of forcing the food waste down through the splash guard but which are braced on each other when an upward force is exerted against the fingers thereby gaining additional support in resisting passage of an object from within the hopper.

My invention will be better understood from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing and its scope will be pointed out in the appended claims.

FIGURE 1 is an elevational view, partly in section, of one embodiment of the splash guard of the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a top plan view of the splash guard of FIGURE 1 taken on the line 2-2 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary plan view of the central tubular portion of the splash guard taken on the line 3-3 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is a bottom plan view of the splash guard taken on the line 4-4 of FIGURE 1 showing the edge reinforcement for the resilient fingers thereof.

Turning to a consideration of the drawing and in particular to FIGURE 1, there is shown a food waste disposer 10 having a generally cylindrical hopper 11 at the bottom of which is a comminuting chamber 12 for acting upon water entrained waste material. Beneath the comminuting chamber is a motor unit 13 having a vertical drive shaft 14 connected to a waste impelling flywheel 15 that is positioned within the comminuting chamber.

This particular disposer is illustrated as a heavy duty commercial model which would be supported from below by means such as a tripod (not shown) that would sit on the floor. This explains the reason the hopper is not shown in the usual manner as-suspended from the sink flange 17 but instead the mouth of the hopper merely envelopes the sink flange and is provided with a rubber O-ring 19 that serves to isolate the hopper 11 from the sink flange 17 while establishing a water tight resilient seal therebetween. It will be appreciated, however, after an explanation of the splash guard of the present invention that it is not limited in its use to a commercial disposer but that it may also be used with the smaller domestic size units.

Any suitable comminuting means may be used at the bottom of the hopper 11 to effect the grinding operation. The comminuting means that i illustrated in the drawing is basically that which is described and claimed in the United States patent to T. E. Jenkins No. 3,005,595 dated October 24; 1961, and assigned to the General Electric Company, the assignee of this invention. Briefly, the cornminuting means comprises a stationary shredding ring 22 which is provided with several cutting pads 23 and a plurality of draining apertures 24. Coacting with the shredding ring 22 is the material impelling flywheel 15 mentioned previously which is provided with a pair of swinging impellers 25 that are moved by centrifugal force when the flywheel is rotated to impel the waste material in the bottom of the hopper against the shredding ring 22 to comminute the material into a fine mass. It will be understood that during this grinding operation water must be allowed to flow down through the sink flange 17 and hopper 11 and that eventually the water and comminuting material wfll be impelled outwardly through the apertures 24 into a sump 26 which drains into a drain line (not shown) that is connected to the sewer system for the house or building in which the disposer is installed.

Positioned within the sink flange 17 is a splash guard 30 embodying the present invention. The lower portion of the sink flange 17 is inwardly turned to form an annular ledge 31 which serves as a seat for the splash guard. The guard itself is made of elastomeric material and its upper portion has a circular periphery that is reinforced by a thin metal ring 32 that is embedded therein so that a force fit of the splash guard into the sink flange is necessary so that the guard will not be inadvertently removed from its position by interference with bones and other food waste materials that might be driven toward the top of the hopper during the operation of the disposer. It should be clear that other means might be substituted for the reinforcing ring 32 to insure the necessary holding force for the splash guard. The shape of the splash guard 34 is generally a funnel or horn shape with a small diameter hole 33 in the center thereof forming the bore of a small diameter tubular portion 34 that extends downwardly from the top circular portion of the splash guard.

in case of feeding food waste particles through the splash guard from the top. This case of loading the machine is combined with the more important capability of preventing heavy pieces of bone and large food chunks from being hurled out of the machine during operation. This latter preventive means is provided by the generally vertically disposed lower portions of the fingers 36 such that if a finger is struck on the underside, it will tend to be braced against the adjacent fingers and close the opening 33 thereby gaining additional support in resisting the passage of an object up through the guard, This bracing ction is increased if the sides 38 of each resilient finger 36 are of thickened sectionby adding reinforcing ribs as shown in the underside view of FIGURE 4. In other words it is this twofold advantage. of first increasing the ease of loading the machine with food waste and water and second increasing the preventive mean for keeping heavy food objects from being hurled out of the machine a during operation that involves the present invention.

Understandably, it is possible to vary the shape of the splash guard from the one which is particularly illustrated by substituting, for example, the frustum of an inverted pyramid or cone instead of the funnel shape or horn shape or cusp of revolution that is illustrated. 1

Modifications or" thi invention will occur to those skilled in this art, therefore, it is to be understood that this invention is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed but that it is intended to cover all modifications which are within the true spirit and scope of this invention as claimed.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent-of the United States is: f

1. In a foodwaste disposer having a stationary hopper with an open throat at the top for receiving water and waste material therethrough, the hopper at its bottom portion enclosing a comminuting chamber, a rotatable comminutingassembly in the chamber comprising a circular flywheel having a vertical axis of rotation and forming a bottom wall of said chamber, a stationary shredding ring within the chamber and cooperating with the flywheel for reducing the food waste in the presence of water into a fiowable mass, a drainage chamber disposed beneath the flywheel for receiving the Water and cornminuted waste material from said chamber, motor means located beneath the drainage chamber and including a drive shaft fixed to said flywheel; the invention comprising a splash guard of elastomeric material adapted to be mounted in the throat of the hopper and having generally the form of the frustum of an inverted cone, the lowest portion of the cone being formed as a slightly tapered converging tubular portion having a nominal diameter substantially less than the nominal diameter of said throat, a plurality of radial slits formed in the splash guard from the tubular lower end to adjacent the periphery of the upper portion of the splash guard to form resilient fingers which increase the ease of forcing the food waste down through the splash guard but which resist the passage of food waste up from the hopper and through the splash guard.

2. A splash guard of elastomeric material for use with a continuous feed waste disposer, said splash guard having a generally circular upper portion that is adapted to be mounted .in the throat of a hopper of the disposer, the central ortion of the splash guard being formed as a small diameter converging tubular shape that projects a substantial distance downwardly into the hopper, a plurality of radial slits formed in the splash guard from the tubular lower end to adjacent the periphery of the upper portion to form resilient fingers which increase the ease of forcing food waste down through the splash guard but which resist the passage of food waste up from thehoppe and out through the splash guard.

3. A splash guard of elastomeric material adapted to be mounted in the throat of a hopper of a food waste disposer, the upper portion of the splash guard being generally circular in shape, the central portion of the splash guard having a deep, small diameter tubular portion extending downwardly from the upper portion to present a generally horn shape that faces upwardly, and a plurality of radial slits formed in the splash guard from the central portion to adjacent the periphery of the upper portion of the splash guard to form resilient fingers that increase the ease of forcing food waste down through the splash guard but which resist the passage of food waste in a reverse direction.

4. A splash guard of elastomeric material adapted to be mounted in the throat of a hopperof a food waste disposer, said splash guard being formed with a relatively large opening at the top portion, the opening gradually decreasing in area as the opening is spaced from the top portion and approaches the bottom portion which is represented by a small diameter tubular portion, a plurality of radial slits formed in the splash guard from the bottom tubular portion to adjacent the periphery of the top portion to form resilient fingers, the sides of each finger being of thickened section thereby to provide an increased surface for the fingers to brace against each other when an upward force is exerted against the underside of the splash guard.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,240,213 4/41 Fromm 146l92 2,912,176 11/59 Jordan 241194 3,012,422 12/61 Zimmerer.

J. SPENCER OVERI-IOLSER, Primary Examiner. 

2. A SPLASH GUARD TO ELASTOMERIC MATERIAL FOR USE WITH A CONTINUOUS FEED WASTE DISPOSER, SAID SPLASH GUARD HAVING A GENERALLY CIRCULAR UPPER PORTION THAT IS ADAPTED TO BE MOUNTED IN THE THROAT OF A HOOPER OF THE DISPOSER, THE CENTRAL PORTION OF THE SPLASH GUARD BEING FORMED AS A SMALL DIAMETER CONVERGING TUBULAR SHAPE THAT PROJECTS A SUBSTANTIAL DISTANCE DOWNWARDLY INTO THE HOPPER, A PLURALITY OF RADIAL SLITS FORMED IN THE SPLASH GUARD FROM THE TUBULAR LOWER END TO ADJACENT THE PERIPHERY OF THE UPPER PORTION TO FORM RESILIENT FINGERS WHICH INCREASE THE EASE OF FORCING FOOD WASTE DOWN THROUGH THE SPLASH GURAD BUT 